Goodies for Biden and his cabinet

Jewelry, art and toy train top list of priciest foreign gifts to Biden and other officials in 2024

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/jewelry-art-toy-train-top-list-priciest-foreign-129678601

Foreign leaders and governments presented to former President Joe Biden, his wife, U.S. Cabinet members and other senior officials tens of thousands of dollars in gifts in the last year of the Biden administration

ByMATTHEW LEE AP diplomatic writer

January 29, 2026, 10:56 AM

WASHINGTON -- Foreign leaders and governments presented to former President Joe Biden, his wife, U.S. Cabinet members and other senior officials tens of thousands of dollars in gifts in the last year of the Biden administration, including a $19,000 painting, an $11,000 necklace, a $5,000 bracelet and in one case $15,000 in cash, according to the latest accounting from the State Department.

The annual report, published Thursday in the Federal Register by the department’s Bureau of Protocol, covers calendar year 2024 and does not include any gifts given to President Donald Trump or his administration in the first year of Trump’s second term.

Federal employees are required to report gifts they receive from foreign officials that are worth more than $480. Most gifts are transferred to the National Archives or General Services Administration and not kept by the recipient unless they choose to reimburse the Treasury for them or in rare cases keep them for official use.

Biden received an acrylic painting titled “Marimba” by the noted Angolan artist Guizef Guilherme, which had an estimated value of $19,000 and was sent to the archives.

Perhaps more unusually, Biden was gifted a sterling silver train set worth $7,750 from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a road bike and two crates of dates worth $7,089 from United Arab Emirates president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The train set and bike were both transferred to the archives while the dates were disposed of by the Secret Service, the report says.

Other high-dollar gifts given to the former president include:

— A $3,300 sculpture of a winged woman by the prime minister of Iraq

— $3,300 in photographs and artwork from the prime minister of the Czech Republic

— $3,000 in sculpture, photographs, posters and books from President Emmanuel Macron of France

— $2,512 worth of assorted presents, including aviator sunglasses, wine, a cookbook, cufflinks and a commemorative Nutella jar from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.